Bones Everywhere

I was reading your cover story in the May Day issue, all about the big fuss over the UCSD house on the bluffs above Black’s Beach (“How UCSD Spent Over $500,000 on a Home Remodel That Never Happened,” Cover Story, May 1). To me, it seems ridiculous, all this fuss over 10,000-year-old bones and giving the Indians jurisdiction over every little bit of dirt dug. Just look at it logically. For example, I’m descended from people who lived in Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland, Normandy, Scandinavia, France, Germany, and Switzerland, and I think other people could say the same thing. Now, does that give me official standing that I should be able to supervise all the road construction and building construction and earthmoving done in those countries? We taxpayers are the ones getting screwed, even though some of the money for the remodeling would come from private donations. There’s nowhere on earth you could go where there probably aren’t somebody’s ashes or bones buried there and long forgotten.

Name Withheld

Correction

In last week’s “Surf Diego,” the featured surfer’s name was misspelled. The correct spelling is A.J. Bhowmik.

Correction

In Naomi Wise’s April 24 review of the Farm House Cafe, chef Olivier Bioteau is quoted as saying that the owners of Cafe 2121 were evicted because they didn’t pay the rent. According to them, that is not true.

It’s Very Suspicious

Thank you, Matt Potter, for the info in “City Lights” (“Breaking News,” May 1), but I wince when you say Francine Busby is a failed candidate. We in the Saver Vote coalition believe she won the election — she was polling 6 percent ahead of Bilbray — and it is telltale that the Republican House of Representatives swore him in before the election was certified, and Reep Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas delayed a recount.

Val Sanfilippo
via email

Here For Generations

About your article concerning Arabo and Dumanis (“Breaking News,” May 1). A large plurality of the Castaneda family lives in the 78th Assembly District. We are native San Diegans that can trace our roots here to this region for over four generations.

We are a politically astute family, and we are voting for Marty Block for State Assembly!

Bob Castaneda
Del Cerro

Mission Hills Eroded

Good article on the continuing destruction of Mission Hills (“We Could End Up Looking Like Phoenix,” Cover Story, April 17). Along with the Lark Street home, you could have included the corner of Arguello and Sunset, a “house” that resembles a medical center, and the monstrosity at the corner of Hawk and Barr Street, a white elephant that has totally destroyed the architectural integrity of the block. The destruction of a charming old shingle-sided Craftsman and the felling of a 100-year-old camphor tree, a community gathering place, accompanied the creation of this hideous structure.

Rico Gardiner
Mission Hills

Packed

The article on the Mills Act was great (“We Could End Up Looking Like Phoenix,” Cover Story, April 17)!! And the room at city hall at the meeting right after your article came out was packed — probably at least 200 people were there. People were passing out the Reader. There was a guy who worked for the City of Los Angeles, and he said their council meetings were never this packed. Every one of those people got up and spoke about how much these neighborhoods and homes mean to them. Most of them did not own homes and had no financial interest in being there, just a personal one, like me.

Anyway, please give props to everyone who helped with that story.

Christine Mann
via email

Hike It All

Los Peñasquitos Canyon is nice, but don’t stop at Black Mountain Road (“Roam-O-Rama,” April 17). The canyon trail continues east. In another mile, you can come under the 15 bridge. On the right (south), you can see the road of an old stagecoach. The canyon is deep there. I think Kit Carson, his Indian, and Ned Beale hid there after the San Pasqual battle. They had to get to San Diego to tell of the bad battle. Kit went toward the mission, the Indian went down Peñasquitos to get to the Camino Real, and Ned went straight toward Old Town. They all arrived and told of the disaster.

And the trail continues past Poway and on to the desert.

E. Dixon
San Diego

Drop That Fig Leaf

Duncan Shepherd, in his review of the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall (April 17), asks why the penis is featured so prominently in the films of producer-director Judd Apatow. The reason is that Mr. Apatow has decided that the male member is one of the last unexplored frontiers in movies, and he is on a mission to explore that frontier, as revealed in a 2007 interview in (if memory serves) Time magazine. So if his mission is successful, it’s only a matter of time before the fig leaf is dropped forever in Hollywood.

Andrew Crane
via email